1. Getting Started with Capistrano
in Ten Easy Steps
Keith Pitty
http://keithpitty.org
keith@keithpitty.org

2. What is Capistrano?
● A tool that aims to make it easy to deploy Rails
applications!
● Written by Jamis Buck, one of the core Rails team
21 Feb 2007 Sydney RoR Meetup: quot;Getting Started with Capistranoquot; Keith Pitty 2

3. These ten steps are based on my
experience
● Starting point:
– “Agile Web Development with Rails”
– 2nd edition, Section 27.5
● There may be better ways, but...
● The following steps worked for me
21 Feb 2007 Sydney RoR Meetup: quot;Getting Started with Capistranoquot; Keith Pitty 3

4. Step 1: Install Software
● Client and server
– my client: OS X
– my server: Fedora Core 6 on a VPS
● Native components
– apache2, mysql5, ruby, rb-rubygems, rb-termios
● Ruby gems
– rake, rails, termios, capistrano, mongrel,
mongrel_cluster
$ sudo gem install --include-dependencies [gem]
21 Feb 2007 Sydney RoR Meetup: quot;Getting Started with Capistranoquot; Keith Pitty 4

5. Step 2: Set up Database
mysql> create database app;
mysql > grant all privileges on app.* to
'app'@'localhost identified by 'password'
with grant option;
21 Feb 2007 Sydney RoR Meetup: quot;Getting Started with Capistranoquot; Keith Pitty 5

6. Step 3: Add Mongrel to Project
● On development machine, this will create
config/mongrel_cluster.yml:
$ mongrel_rails cluster::configure
-e production -p 8000 -a 127.0.0.1 -N -2
/deploy/path/current
21 Feb 2007 Sydney RoR Meetup: quot;Getting Started with Capistranoquot; Keith Pitty 6

7. Step 4: Apply Capistrano to Project
● On development machine, this will create
config/deploy.rb and
lib/tasks/capistrano.rake:
$ cap –apply-to /local/project/path [app]
21 Feb 2007 Sydney RoR Meetup: quot;Getting Started with Capistranoquot; Keith Pitty 7

8. Step 5: Configure Capistrano (1)
● Edit config/deploy.rb:
– Add as first statement:
require 'mongrel_cluster/recipes'
21 Feb 2007 Sydney RoR Meetup: quot;Getting Started with Capistranoquot; Keith Pitty 8

9. Step 5: Configure Capistrano (2)
● Edit config/deploy.rb:
– Set variables:
set :application, “app”
set :repository,
“http:svn.host.com/#{application}/trunk”
set :deploy_to,
“/usr/local/railsapps/#{application}”
set :mongrel_conf,
“#{current_path}/config/mongrel_cluster.yml”
21 Feb 2007 Sydney RoR Meetup: quot;Getting Started with Capistranoquot; Keith Pitty 9

10. Step 5: Configure Capistrano (3)
● Edit config/deploy.rb (continued):
set :web, “my.host.com”
set :app, “my.host.com”
set :db, “my.host.com”, :primary => true
set :user, “keith”
21 Feb 2007 Sydney RoR Meetup: quot;Getting Started with Capistranoquot; Keith Pitty 10

11. Step 6: Set up Directories
● On development machine, this will set up
directories on target server:
$ cap setup
21 Feb 2007 Sydney RoR Meetup: quot;Getting Started with Capistranoquot; Keith Pitty 11

12. Step 7: Secure Database
● Copy database.yml to
#{shared_path}/config on server
● Rename to database.yml.production and set
production username and password
● Add the following to :after_update_code task
in config/deploy.rb:
db_config =
“#{shared_path}/config/database.yml.production”
run “cp #{db_config}
#{release_path}/config/database.yml”
21 Feb 2007 Sydney RoR Meetup: quot;Getting Started with Capistranoquot; Keith Pitty 12

13. Step 8: Ensure Subversion is OK
● Installed on client and server?
● Repository created on server?
● Apache configured for subversion?
● svn import?
● svn checkout?
21 Feb 2007 Sydney RoR Meetup: quot;Getting Started with Capistranoquot; Keith Pitty 13

14. Step 9: Deploy and Verify
● One more pre-req: edit sudoers file on server
● Deploy app, create tables (from client):
$ cap cold_deploy
$ cap migrate
● Verify (on server):
$ curl -I http://127.0.0.1:8000
21 Feb 2007 Sydney RoR Meetup: quot;Getting Started with Capistranoquot; Keith Pitty 14

15. Step 10: Configure Apache
● Configure Apache to connect to Mongrel
– Proxy for mongrel_cluster
– VirtualHost with rewrite rules for app
– see AWDwR, Section 27.5, Step Five for details
● Restart Apache
● App should now work via browser!
21 Feb 2007 Sydney RoR Meetup: quot;Getting Started with Capistranoquot; Keith Pitty 15

16. From now on it will be easy!
● When you've checked in some changes:
$ cap deploy
● If you need to back out your changes:
$ cap rollback
21 Feb 2007 Sydney RoR Meetup: quot;Getting Started with Capistranoquot; Keith Pitty 16

17. Resources
● “Agile Web Development with Rails”
– Second Edition, section 27.5
● http://manuals.rubyonrails.com/read/book/17
– when it's available
● http://rubyforge.org/projects/capistrano/
● http://weblog.jamisbuck.org
● capistrano@googlegroups.com
● rubyonrails-deployment@googlegroups.com
21 Feb 2007 Sydney RoR Meetup: quot;Getting Started with Capistranoquot; Keith Pitty 17

18. Thanks for listening!
Keith Pitty
http://keithpitty.org
keith@keithpitty.org
21 Feb 2007 Sydney RoR Meetup: quot;Getting Started with Capistranoquot; Keith Pitty 18